Storm coming.

This is my first Fatherhood Friday post, the place to showcase my newfound manhood. But right now I am not manly at all, not even womanly...I am 100% chicken.
Tonight after school I am supposed to be a dad again. We look forward to this all week...but sometimes it doesn't matter whether you are a mom or a dad... only that you are a parent, and beyond that, you are distilled into something cleaner, purer, a human being that loves another human being.
Right now, as tornado force winds approach from the west and two of my children are separated from me by thirty miles I am aware of how that is all that really matters. I imagine Fallon who is fifteen pretending to be brave as they are taken to the storm shelter. She was raised in Arizona where these things don't happen. And Liam, who is only five will be scared. He is small for his age, and because two members of our family have died recently he is afraid himself of dying. I know that Fallon was wearing a purple checked shirt today and green shoes because she couldn't find the ones that matched. And Liam was wearing a t-shirt with the Superman logo on front. This seems an incredibly important thing to remember.
I want to hold my children and reassure them. I want to kiss and cuddle them like a mother, and tell them everything is alright like a father.
I miss my own father who passed away this Christmas. He was the family weatherman, an expert in all things meteorological. He knew what to say and what to expect.
In my new role as weekend dad I am practicing that knowledgeable assurance that men seem to possess so naturally, and I am realizing how important it is to have both sides of the coin, how my children need that balance.
I have to remember when they fall not only to kiss it and make it better but to dust them off and send them on.
I have to remember when they fail to forgive the mistake, but also teach them how not to make it again.
When they are afraid I have to hold their hands, but also tell them that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
When they are wrong I have to reprimand them but still love them through it.
When they turn me away I have to remind them that to get respect you have to give it, but also reach a hand back out to them.
And when they are far away in a storm I have to wait with my arms open for them to come home...so I can tell them everything is alright.